justifiedfandomcom-20200215-history
Dark as a Dungeon
"Dark as a Dungeon" is the eighth episode of the sixth season, and the 73rd episode in the series overall. It was written by Chris Provenzano and VJ Boyd and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton. It first aired on March 10, 2015. Plot Summary Raylan extends an unexpected offer to Markham. Boyd and Ava find themselves in Walker's dangerous company. Recap Raylan is cleaning out his daddy's house, unloading guns, flushing medications down the toilet, etc. He takes a pair of bolt cutters to the padlock on Arlo's U.S. Army footlocker, fans through some collected letters held together by rubber bands, some old black and white photos, etc., then drags the footlocker out onto the lawn, pours some of the bourbon he's been nipping at into the container and lights everything on fire, saving only a solitary key that was on the chain along with Arlo's dog tags. Ava and Boyd pull up near the entrance to the Number 14 mine shaft and are met by Card and Earl who tell the couple that Zachariah is still down in the mine, awaiting Boyd's arrival so he can show him how The Pig died. Raylan instructs Earl to take Ava home and "not let her out of your sight," then draws his fiancée aside and tells her to pack light for a quick departure. When she asks him for the return of her phone, he does, but tells her that it is their only pipeline to Raylan. Twice eliciting affirmative responses to his question, "Do you trust me?" he leaves her and heads to the mine shaft opening. Raylan is meeting a local mortician at the grave site of his parents, and gives instructions as to how he wants his (real) mother's remains to be disinterred and reinterred at the town cemetery. The mortician tries to explain that there won't be much of his mother left (as Arlo no doubt buried her in the cheapest box available), but the son wants it done anyway. He also makes it abundantly clear that he has no interest in what happens to Arlo's remains, off-handedly suggesting "Potter's field?" Fellow U.S. Deputy Marshal Tim Gutterson pulls up and informs Raylan that they have only scant and conflicting leads on Ty Walker's where-abouts. Tim questions Raylan about his work-related intentions so he can report back to Acting Chief Deputy Rachel Brooks. Raylan allows how he had no interest in rejoining the Walker manhunt, that his primary job at the moment is getting Boyd Crowder, thinking Ava's uncle Zachariah Randolph is a good starting point. Earl accompanies Ava, per instructions, back to her house, and once they are inside with the door locked behind them, Walker appears from the back of the house. "I suppose it's just the three of us then," he says. Boyd and Carl descend into the mine where Boyd, suspecting a shake-down, confronts Zachariah about how much more money he's holding out for. Zachariah insists that it's not about the money, that the job is too dangerous. An angry Boyd persists, and Zachariah says, "Another ten grand should do it." Carl is watching the exchange intently and with obvious suspicion. He's not a Zachariah fan. Boyd agrees to the additional money and leaves the mineshaft admonishing the two men to finishing digging into the bank vault. Zachariah and Carl eyeball one another with distrust and obvious animus. In the Crowder kitchen, Ty has Ava tying Earl securely to a kitchen chair, and then explains that he's removed the pistol and shotgun she had stashed about the house, and warns her not to try for any of the cutlery drawers. "I'm not here to hurt you," he tells her, "or Boyd either." And while they are awaiting Boyd's return, he puts the EMT medical bag that he'd taken from the murdered First Responders on the table, and tells Ava he needs her to stitch him up. Zachariah is getting some dynamite out of a box in his work shed when he hears Raylan call his name. He puts a piece of canvas over the explosives and turns his attention to the U.S. Deputy Marshal. Raylan identifies himself, and reminds Zachariah that they knew one another from "Dog Hole Mine, 1990... Joseph's Valley." The older man recalls, noting "That was a long time ago." When Raylan asks Zachariah if he remembers Boyd, he responds, "You Arlo Givens' boy, ain't you?" Raylan acknowledges he is, and when he asks Zachariah, "What line of work you in these days?" any pretext of cordially goes out the window. In short order, Raylan asks what's in the crate on the bench, Zachariah says it's none of his business, and the U.S. Marshal's badge is flashed. Raylan insults Zachariah, calling him "a whore" and a "shit-apple redneck," and things get physical as Zachariah refuses to step aside when Raylan makes to enter and inspect the contents of the crate. A solid gut punch incapacitates Zachariah and as he is trying to pull himself back together, Raylan enters and sees the crate is more than half filled with sticks of dynamite. Raylan thinks about this for a moment, then turns to exit when Zachariah sucker-punches him to the mid-section. There is a brief exchange of fisticuffs until a winded Zachariah, from the ground, raises his hand and asks "You had enough?" Raylan looks at the defeated man with incredulity. "You got me pretty good," he tells him, helping Zachariah to his feet. "I still got some scrap," Zachariah says. He looks at the Deputy U.S. Marshal a moment, figuring that he about to get arrested. "I ain't going to take you in," Raylan tells him, and when the surprised man offers his thanks, Raylan says, "Don't. You're in deep shit either way," and walks off. In Lexington, Mikey opens the hotel suite door and allows Katherine Hale to enter. Wynn sends his man out to pick up dry cleaning, then makes his case that Avery Markham was behind her late husband's demise. It's plausible, but Katherine notes that the same circumstances Wynn has just described, could also track back to Wynn. Switching subjects, he allows as how Markham is getting fed up with how things are going in Harlan, the problems he's having with his men dying, the place overrun with Marshals, etc. He adds that he hasn't been able to get make contact with Boyd and get a progress report on robbing Markham's money. Katherine calmly posits another scenario in case Boyd fails. "I marry Avery. We take his money a year from now, two years, it doesn't matter. I'll have access to his entire bank account." Wynn remarks, "Seems like I'm a third wheel in that scenario." Katherine tells him not to be too anxious, and leaves. In Ava's kitchen, she is finishing stitching up Ty's bullet wound when a key is heard in the front door lock. Boyd enters, and when he doesn't hear Ava respond to his call, he draws his pistol. Using Ava as his shield, his own pistol at her head, there is a terse angry stand-off. Ty tells Boyd to put his gun down, "I just want to talk." Boyd refuses, countering that if Ty "just wants to talk," then he should put his gun down. Carefully, Ty shifts his position and hands Ava his gun. A furious Boyd advances on the man and pistol whips him for putting his hands on Ava. Ty goes down against the staircase as Boyd presses his pistol to his face at the same time as Ava is pleading for her man to wait and hear him out. "Boyd he's telling the truth... Markham cut him loose." But Boyd's on a roll now, threatening to leave the mercenary's corpse at the bottom of a mine shaft. He doesn't back off 'til Ava tells him that Ty has the combination to Avery's safe. At Ava's kitchen table, Ty, holding a cold pack from the EMT bag on his face where Boyd pistol-whipped him, explains that his men "are either dead or in the wind, every one of them." Figuring that his ex-employer is just one man at the moment who hasn't had time to assemble reinforcements, he tells Boyd that his way is better than Boyd's. "I don't see you pulling thrill-seeker hold-ups with 'Born to Lose" tattooed on your chest." They discuss, then argue, about Ty's plan as Boyd questions the man across the table very carefully until Ty tells him, "At some point you have to trust me or you have to shoot me." Boyd considers it, and decides not to shoot his captive. Art Mullen visits Katherine in he hotel room at her invitation. Without offering one to Art, she pours a drink for herself and discusses their interest in learning who had snitched on Grady Hale 14 years earlier. After a bit, she hands over the file that Wynn Duffy had given her earlier that day, and expresses her desire that something extremely unpleasant happen to whoever the snitch was. "You can see yourself out," she tells Art, and retires. Raylan goes to visit Avery at his restaurant, and finds the man all alone sitting at a table in the barroom reading the local newspaper. There is a terse and hostile exchange as Raylan makes himself a drink and sits down across from the crime boss and offers his view of the situation. "I want Walker, you want land. Help me get Walker, maybe you get your land." Avery is mildly amused, but Raylan goes on to explain that if he gets "Walker off my plate, I get Boyd." He further tells Avery that it was Boyd who put the kibosh on Avery's extensive land acquisition program. Now he has Markham's full attention. "You telling me that after all the saber rattling, we're on the same side" The lawman sips his drink, and says, "Saying we got a common problem." 'With Walker in the middle," Avery picks up the thread. There some more conversation before Avery says, "I just can't imagine you're part of the solution." Raylan finishes his drink and points out, "Who else you got?" He lays out his plan. Later Avery is in the broadcast studio with the host (real life Harlan radio show host Jackie 'Crow' Cornett) of "Crow in the Morning Show," who introduces Markham to his radio audience. As Raylan is driving, he calls Tim who is at Walker's with a crew of Marshals conducting a search. He tells Tim to tune in AM 1194, and just as the station comes on, they hear Avery guaranteeing "a $100,000 cash reward to anyone who can bring in the fugitive Ty Walker." Tim lets out a credulous but appreciative epithet. "You're welcome," Raylan says. In Ava's kitchen, Boyd and Walker discuss the plan to get into the Pizza Portal's basement to get Avery's drug money, and Walker's subsequent escape from the manhunt. Boyd takes Ava aside to figure out if Ava calling in a false tip on spotting the fugitive somewhere distant to draw the man hunters away from the Pizza Portal, which, if Ava made the call from her phone would burn her as Raylan's confidential informant. Ty tells them that a car has just pulled up... it's Raylan, naturally. Boyd, full of expansive bonhomie, goes out to greet his old friend and adversary... and intercept his entrance into the house. The two men joust verbally as Raylan admits to Boyd that nailing the criminal is all that's keeping him from emigrating to Florida. They actually start waxing eloquent and philosophical. "There's a part of me who's going to miss this when it's over," Raylan tell Boyd as Ava comes out on the porch and chide Boyd from not inviting the Deputy Marshal in for a drink. Raylan accepts, and the two men continue their edgy banter in the house as Ty and Earl listen from the other room. When Raylan brings up the $100,000 cash reward that Avery has placed on Ty, Boyd looks at Ava a moment, then turns back. "He's in the backroom," he states quietly. Raylan hears sudden noise from that direction and, gun drawn, goes back to find Earl out cold on the floor as he spots Ty running across the yard. Raylan follows out the back door and tries to halt the man from the porch. Ty throws shots in Raylan's direction, causing the lawman to very deliberately put two rounds into the center of the man's back. Ty goes down in the dirt. As Raylan approaches the stricken man, he gasps, "You shot me in the back!" "You wanted to get hit in the front, you should have run toward me," he tells the dying man. He looks down at the mercenary and shakes his head. "All for what, the money?" he mutters. "No," Ty says just before he rasps his last, babbling "No, no, no, not just the money. No." As the shooting team finishes up their tasks at Ava's Raylan goes to speak with the couple but their attorney won't let them be interviewed. As they walk away, Raylan teases them about Avery's $100,000 cash reward for Ty. Boyd thinks it's "bullshit," but the Deputy Marshal convinces him it's a genuine, no strings attached offer. When Avery opens his door to find Boyd and Raylan on his Pizza Portal doorstepe, his response is "You've got to be joking me!" "A dangerous man has been taken off the streets because of your generosity," Raylan says with a straight face. They accompany Avery to the basement where he opens his huge vault. Turning the light on, he enters and starts taking $100,000 worth of stacked bills off the shelves while Raylan and Boyd look on, straining to keep a normal demeanor. Down in the mine shaft, Zachariah and Carl have tunneled up directly beneath Markham's vault, and are about to set off a dynamite charge. Above, Avery silently plops the stacks of cash down in front of Boyd, secures the vault, turns and leaves the basement without a word. Beneath them, Zachariah gleefully calls out the time-honored, "Fire in the hole!" In the Pizza Portal basement, Boyd and Raylan joust verbally some more with the outlaw suspicious of the lawman's motives in letting him have a peek at the al of Markham's cash. He renews his promise to Raylan that he's going to take it all, and leaves. Raylan is alone with his thoughts for several moments when he hears two distant muffled explosions followed by minor tremors. He looks around the basement with a furrowed brow. Earl and Ava join Boyd back at the bar. Boyd praises the younger man's hard work ethic, then sends him home. Alone, Boyd and Ava celebrate their $100,000 windfall, and she tells him that now that they have the money, they can leave Harlan. Nope, not a chance when, by Boyd's calculations, there's $10 million yet to be had in Avery's vault. Ava tries to talk him out of the big score, but he will not... cannot... be dissuaded! He just has to go for that huge score. Ava pays a late night visit to Raylan. He wants to know what "today was all about," with Ty hiding in her house, laying out (correctly) that when she'd invited him in for a drink, Boyd's face had said that she wasn't supposed to do that. She insists that everything is still jake, that Raylan's planning is proceeding as he intended. He demands to know and she continues the faction that it was just a hunting trip and a romantic day spent with her fiancée. Raylan presses the matter, but Ava will not be shaken from that narrative. She makes reference to the $100,000 of Markham's money they'd just claimed, but Raylan tells her that that money "is just cheese" for the trap he intends to spring on Boyd. He again demands to know "what happened in Bulletville?" Ava repeats the denial. "Are you all right?" he asks, and she maintains that she is. The former lovers look at one another in silence, then Raylan asks "Why is it always a fight with us?" Ava shakes her head, then offers 'We're too much alike I think." Raylan reports by phone to Rachel at Marshal's headquarters that he doesn't know when the robbery is supposed to happen, but he'd discover how it would happen: "Boyd is going to blast up from underneath." He also states that Ava is burned as their C.I. Rachel is disturbed at this news, but wants to know how Raylan knows. "I just know," he tells her, and she tells him to come to Lexington first thing in the morning so they can hash out a strategy to deal with that last piece of news. Raylan takes a flashlight out into the back property to a building secured with a padlock, and uses the key from Arlo's dog tags chain to open it. He pokes around and shines the light's beam into all the corners. "Nothing!" he says to himself, but Arlo's voice asks, "What were you expecting? Rosebud?" There's a pale representation of Arlo, and they have an imaginary conversation, Raylan revealing that his whole life he'd had nightmares about what his father had locked up in that building. "Slave girl, animal for killing, secrets, horror." "And it ain't nothing," Arlo replies, just as cold in death as he had been is life. The next morning Raylan meets with the mortician at the Givens family plot as a backhoe arrives. Raylan has been reflecting on their prior conversation and decided that the mortician had been correct, and that there wouldn't be much of his mother to disinter. The first tombstone the backhoe knocks over reads: "RAYLAN GIVENS Beloved son of Frances and Arlo 1970- " "Where would you like it relocated?" he is asked. "Your guess is as good as mine," the Deputy U.S. Marshal replies. ''- Created by Dean Speir for IMDb'' Appearances First Appearances *No first appearances. Deaths #Ty Walker - Shot in the back by Raylan Givens. Production Cast Starring cast *Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens *Nick Searcy as Art Mullen *Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy *Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder *Jacob Pitts as Tim Gutterson *Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks *Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder Guest stars *Mary Steenburgen as Katherine Hale *Garret Dillahunt as Ty Walker *Justin Welborn as Carl Lennon *Ryan Dorsey as Earl Lennon *Jeff Fahey as Zachariah Randolph *Don McManus as Billy Geist *Sam Elliott as Avery Markham Co-starring *Jonathan Kowalsky as Mike Cosmatopolis *Christopher Boyer as Mortician *Jackie Cornett as Himself Uncredited *Raymond J. Barry as Arlo Givens Gallery S2.jpg External Links Category:Season 6 episodes